This invention relates to means for mounting a vehicle body on a vehicle frame.
Vehicle bodies are commonly mounted on vehicle frames by the use of a body mount including a pair of uper and lower resilient blocks and a pair of upper and lower sheet metal spacer members each having a generally planar flange portion and an integral elongate tubular portion. The resilient blocks are positioned on upper and lower sides of the vehicle frame in alignment with and opening in the frame, the tubular portions of the sheet metal spacer members are respectively inserted in a central opening in a respective resilient block, and the inboard ends of tubular portions are secured together to respectively secure the resilient blocks to upper and lower sides of the vehicle frame.
A vehicle body mount of this general type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,427 to Bennett. In Bennett, the tubular portion of the upper spacer member is provided with a reduced diameter section nearest the lower free end of the tubular portion and the tubular portion of the lower spacer member is of a small enough diameter to be telescopically received within the reduced diameter lower section of the tubular portion of the upper spacer member. During assembly, a special staking gun is required to provide a compressive force upon the spacer members and the resilient blocks and cause the free end of the tubular portion of the lower spacer member to flair outwardly into locking engagement with the shoulder created by the changing diameter of the tubular portion of the upper spacer member. Whereas this body mount structure has proven to be generally satisfactory, it requires the use of a special staking gun to accomplish the mounting operation, and this gun adds significantly to the cost of the assembly operation since the gun represents an item of capital investment, represents repair and maintenance expense, and consumes precious and expensive space along the assembly line.